Washington, May 27: Call it a love affair with a dark side.

Consumers today can’t get enough of their credit cards, slapping them down with a passion to pay for everything from fast food to plane tickets at a rate of 10,000 transactions a second worldwide.

But while Americans love the convenience of plastic, they often hate the credit card issuer. Credit card complaints outstrip all other bank-related grievances filed with federal regulators in recent years.

The avalanche of gripes generally boils down to objections about a half-dozen practices, according to congressional staff and consumer groups. The complaints mostly centre on what consumers see as unfairly high interest rates and penalty fees; confusing policies that constantly change, almost always in the lender’s favour; and near-insurmountable hurdles to getting help when a consumer falls into trouble or when a company makes a billing mistake.

Dave Sullivan of Sacramento said he had a credit card that ended up being bought by another company that then raised his rate for no reason to 19.99 per cent from 10.99 per cent.

“It irked me,” he said. “You can’t change the contract, but they can?” He paid it off and cancelled it, switching to a Chase card, which he says he’s happy with.

Regulators are listening to the complaints and preparing to issue stronger consumer protection rules. The US Federal Reserve proposed new, long-awaited regulations on Wednesday that would require credit card companies to make disclosures clearer and easier to understand. But some lawmakers think the rules, which could become final by year’s end, may not be enough and a new law might be needed.

All of the major US credit card companies — Chase, Bank of America, Citibank, Discover, Capital One, American Express and HSBC — have engaged in at least one of these practices.

The industry defends its policies as necessary so card issuers can adjust prices to reflect the risk that card holders might default on their debt. But as policymakers step up scrutiny, companies are being forced to reexamine long-standing practices.

In the hope of heading off legislation banning some of these practices, the industry welcomed the proposal for better disclosure.